RPG Character a Day 4,5, and 6
I’m continuing the practice of emulating and adapting existing characters to RPGs that I know and like to play. You may notice that the characters align with a game that I associate with the media property that they are from.
Character 4
The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon in APOCTHULHU
First up today will be a system that I am only familiar with in passing, APOCTHULHU. APOCTHULHU is a game in which the terrible eldritch apocalypse either is happening or has happened. It’s built on the bones of Delta Green, so at least I’m somewhat familiar with it.
For this character, I wanted to try to make Daryl Dixon from the Walking Dead. For game purposes, I’ll stat him as he was at the beginning of the series. I’m following along with the quickstart rules.
Step 1 is to pick an archetype.
Daryl is a hunter, which makes it easy to go with the Former Survivalist archetype, which grants me some skills. I’m noticing now that Survival is a Choose One skill in this flavor of RPG, but the quickstart doesn’t elaborate further beyond listing a few examples on the premade character sheets: Survival (City), Survival (Plains). I can make this work, I’ll choose Forest and City.
Step 2 is to assign statistics. Darly is physically strong and resilient, so I’ll make sure that he’s got good strength, constitution, dexterity, and power. I’ll go with the middle set of statistics. The next part of this step is to give bonuses for living in the hard times of a particular apocalypse. I think that a zombie apocalypse would call for either being quick or resilient, so I would say that players could either have +1 DEX or +1 POW. For Daryl, I’ll shore up his POW.
Step 3 is something that I’m less familiar with, assigning resources. The archetype I picked has 5 that I need to assign either “at hand, stowed, or in storage.” Daryl doesn’t seem like the type to squirrel resources away. I’ll put 2 at hand, 2 stowed, and 1 in storage. I hope this is enough to cover a motorcycle and a crossbow. Further examination tells me that Resources are somewhat unattached to Gear.
Step 4 is picking individual and community bonds. The chosen archetype has 2. I’ll make him loyal to his brother Merle, and to his newfound group (Shane’s survivors in the show).
Step 5 is picking motivations. Like Delta Green, you pick up to 5. I’ll list a few.
Step 6 is picking adversity skills. This comes from “exposure to a shattered world” The GM is supposed to provide these, but I’ll make a setting appropriate choice: the importance of stealth and avoiding human conflict means taking +20 to one of the following skills: Persuade, Reassure, Scavenge, Stealth. I’ll take a Stealth boost for Daryl.
Step 7 is assigning bonus skills. Choose 10 skills to add +20 to, which can repeat but not go over 80. I can see immediately the need to shore up Stealth and Melee Weapons, and to add Ranged Weapons for Daryl’s signature weapon, the crossbow. I’ll add the remaining to Survival (City) and Scavenge.
Step 8 is adding the final touches, which is essentially like a Damaged Veteran Package in Delta Green. The quickstart doesn’t elaborate further, but I really imagined Daryl being Adapted to Helplessness or at least Hard Experience from the time that his mother died and he had to survive in the woods for some time. I consulted with a friend who owned the full-text game to help me achieve this. And in doing so realized that this setting would be Very Harsh, prompting me to upgrade the statistics from step 2 to increases in both and to earn another +20 from Step 6, putting some points into Persuade. This also means that starting SAN would be POW x 4 and starting with one disorder on a failed POW x 5 test, as well as gaining the Adaptation to Helplessness (-3 CHA, and the same to all Bonds)
And with that, Daryl Dixon is complete for APOCTHULHU!
Daryl Dixon
STR 12 CON 14 DEX 16 INT 11 POW 12 CHA 6
HP 13 WP 11 SAN 48 BP 36
Resources: At Hand: 2 Stowed: 2 In Storage: 1
Bonds: Merle 6 Shane’s Survivors 6
Motivations: Keep my brother safe, keep the group fed, find a safe place, kill these monsters
Disorders: Adapted to Violence, PTSD
SKILLS
Craft (Farming) 50%
Drive 60%
Firearms 50%
First Aid 40%
Heavy Machinery 30%
Insight 50%
Melee Weapons 70%
Navigate 40%
Persuade 40%
Ranged Weapons 80%
Ride 50%
Scavenge 70%
Stealth 70%
Survival (Forest) 60%
Survival (City) 60%
Unarmed Combat 80%
GEAR
Motorcycle
Crossbow
Character 5
Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Speigel in Ironsworn: Starforged
Lord forgive me, I’m going to do another Starforged character. I know that Orbital Blues exists, but I haven’t had the time to dive into it. As a side note concerning Starforged: Unfollow Me Now, This is Gonna Be the Only Thing I Post About for the Next Year. With that out of the way, it’s time for Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop.
For stats, Spike is fast as heck, making Edge a must-have. After that, Wits and Shadow as a reflection of Spike’s craftiness and criminal background.
Starforged’s Asset cards make it easy to build Spike: you can go with Ace Pilot, Gunslinger, and Bounty Hunter. I’ll also bend the rules a bit and give him a Support Vehicle, the Snub Nose Fighter.
Later on, you can acquire an Asset that may reflect his Jeet Kune Do like Brawler, and maybe a Companion: Sidekick Asset for Jet, Ed, Faye, or Ein. These could also be portrayed as a Connection / Bond instead of a character sheet Asset. I struggled to make a
Support Vehicle: Snub Fighter
⬛Your armed snub fighter carries a single pilot for space or atmospheric flight and combat. When you Enter the Fray, you may roll +integrity; if you do, take +2 momentum on a hit.
⬜When you Strike or Clash, add +1. On a strong hit with a match, mark progress.
⬜ When you personally defeat a notable foe in your snub fighter, envision the victory mark you make on the fuselage. Tally your victories in this box. For every five, mark 2 ticks on your quests legacy track
Path: Ace
⬛When you Face Danger or React Under Fire by guiding your vehicle through a hazard or out of harm’s way, add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit.
⬜When you Gain Ground by maneuvering your vehicle against a foe, add +1. If you score a strong hit with a 4, 5, or 6 on the action die, you may put yourself in firing position. If you do, set aside the action die or note its value. If you or an ally Strike using the vehicle’s weapons, preset your action die with that value. This persists until you fail to score a strong hit on that move, or until you make another move which changes your vehicle’s position.
⬜When you must Endure Stress while piloting a vehicle, you may roll +integrity. If you do, take +1 momentum on a strong hit.
Path: Gunslinger
⬛When you Enter the Fray by facing off against your foe (+heart), or by preparing to act without tipping them off (+shadow), add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit. On a strong hit with a match, you may immediately take a shot (without making a move) and mark progress twice.
⬜When you Gain Ground or React Under Fire by moving into cover, add +1. On a strong hit, this cover gives you leverage; add +1 when you make a move to attack or defend at range. If you then score a miss, the cover is lost or compromised.
⬜When you Compel or Gain Ground with the threat of violence by holding someone at gunpoint, add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit.
Path: Bounty Hunter
⬛When you take a bounty contract and Swear an Iron Vow to see it done, add +1. On a strong hit, you’ve got a solid lead and may immediately mark progress. When you Fulfill Your Vow, make the legacy reward one rank higher (1 extra box if already epic).
⬜When you Gather Information related to a bounty, add +2. On a strong hit with a match, you reveal a surprising aspect of the contract; envision what you discover, and choose one.
✴ Forge ahead: Mark progress twice.
✴ Change loyalties: Forsake Your Vow and mark 2 ticks on your bonds legacy track.
⬜When you Take Decisive Action in a fight against a bounty target or their agents, you may reroll one challenge die.
Character 6
Rambo from the First Blood series
Rambo III was on the tv at work the other day, and I can’t get over how ridiculous it was. I remembered an RPG that someone had told me about a few years ago called Straight to VHS where player characters are the over-the-top ridiculous tropes making their way through convoluted silly plotlines, just like movies that went straight to videotape. STV has changed since I last saw it. It used to be a d20 based game, but now it uses a d6 dice pool and I approve of these changes.
Anyways, here’s my best attempt to make Rambo for Straight to VHS.
I dropped $160 of the $200 character currency to make a machinegun. There’s no survival knife as gear, so I’ll make it and drop the remaining $40 on it, same as what a toolkit costs.
Stats
Accuracy: 3
Athletics: 2
Charisma: 0
Intellect: 1
Spycraft: 0
Strength: 4
Hit Points
Heart: 3
Shield: 3
Tropes
Badass: Most of these other Tropes are for eggheads and commies. You believe in the power of doing. “Doing” just means kicking all sorts of ass. You get a +1 Boon when you attack multiple targets with a single attack. Also, the special ability "Bad Edit" doesn't cost you a Token.
Stat Bonuses: +3 ACC or STR, +1 to two other stats
Skill: Destruction +2
Flaw: Diplomacy -2
Special Abilities
Die Hardly: A shark bite and a gunshot wound? Big deal! At the end of each Scene you heal 1 HP without needing to turn in a Token. Also, while all your Hearts are marked, you get to ignore a single “1” in each of your rolls. Being so resilient has made you almost unaware of danger.
Stat Bonuses: +3 to any stat, +1 to two others
Flaw: Awareness -2
Special Abilities:
Makin’ Me Angry (free action) Once per Scene, get two Tokens when you have Nothing To Lose.
Come and Get It (major action) Once per Scene, during an Action Sequence, earn a Token by acting cool and casual. On your next turn, you can do any one action as a free action.
Gimmicks
Spray and Pray: Once per Scene, wildly fire a ranged weapon. Enemies within your weapon’s range have a -2 Problem on their attacks before your next turn.
Items
Machine Gun +1
Normal Range: Far
Blast Range: Close
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